See the photos: Lockhart Smokehouse Plano is open for business

Lockhart Smokehouse's second location is near the corner of 15th & K Streets in old downtown Plano.
(Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse) 

February 12, 2014, may go down in history as the day great barbecue finally came to Plano. In the past, if you wanted good BBQ and lived in Plano, you had to drive to either south to downtown Dallas or north to McKinney. Sad but true for a city of 272,000. Then Lockhart Smokehouse came to town......

The Posse first met the Lockhart crew when we snuck into the original location in Oak Cliff before they opened in February 2011. Their opening week coincided with the infamous Super Bowl ice storm that paralyzed D/FW that year.

With hard work and determination, they overcame the ominous start to become a top 50 BBQ joint in Texas, as named by Texas Monthly magazine in 2013.  In the world of Texas barbecue, that's a major accomplishment, especially in less than three years. Lockhart Smokehouse has proved to be a pillar in the renaissance of great barbecue in the city of Dallas.

Diners wait to order at Lockhart Smokehouse in Plano (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

Co-owners Jeff Bergus and Tim McLaughlin were wanting to establish a second location in Collin County, but were patient enough to find the perfect location. When Tim found this location in the burgeoning dining destination of downtown Plano, they began the hard work to make that happen.

The Plano location is almost exactly the same size as Oak Cliff and the menu is identical. Pitmaster Will Fleishman has moved north to become general manager of the new restaurant. Will is running two large Bewley pits, giving him almost twice the pit capacity of the Oak Cliff location.

With the opening of Lockhart Smokehouse in old downtown Plano, the BBQ drought is finally over in this neck of the woods.

Lockhart Smokehouse, 1026 East 15th St., Plano, 972-516-8900. Open Sun-Sat 11am-9pm or until the meat runs out, bar open until at least midnight.

(L-R) Co-owners Tim McLaughlin and Jeff Bergas pose with general manager Will Fleishman between the dual Bewley pits at Lockhart Smokehouse Plano. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

View from the balcony of Lockhart Smokehouse in Plano. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

Mike Singleton cuts meat for Lockhart Smokehouse customers. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

Sausage from Kreuz Market in Lockhart is a staple at Lockhart Smokehouse. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

Baby Jesus watches over the briskets in the Lockhart Smokehouse pit room.
(Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

Here's a new installment of our "BBQ is" pitmasters portrait project

Ben Washington, Whup's Boomerang Bar-B-Que, Marlin.  (Photo ©Daniel Goncalves/Fotobia.com)

Posse member Daniel Goncalves is back with the next installment of his "BBQ is" pitmaster portrait series.

The Dallas-based editorial and commercial photographer has been photographing top pitmasters around the state with a Fuji Instax 210 instant film camera. Sixty seconds later the Polaroid is dry and Daniel has each pitmaster fill in the blank with a sharpie on their portrait, "BBQ is ________." With this project, Daniel continues to raise the creative bar for both the Posse and Texas BBQ photography.

Click here to see our first blog post featuring his portraits of Austin pitmasters.

Famed writer John T. Edge pens an ode to barbecue in Parade magazine

In Sunday’s Parade magazine, John T. Edge, the noted Southern food writer, weighs in on the nationwide barbecue renaissance. (By the way, if you haven’t seen Parade in a while, you might be stunned to see it today. It’s a deathly shadow of its former self, with a much smaller format and far fewer pages – more like a pamphlet than a magazine.)

Edge writes that Americans have “adopted barbecue as our national folk food. … The new question is, how high can barbecue go?”

It will come as no surprise to anyone who’s read one of these rebirth-of-barbecue articles that Aaron Franklin is featured prominently in Edge’s piece – as well he should be:

First Look: Work Bar & Grill in Deep Ellum, Dallas

Brisket plate with sides of cole slaw and tortellini mac & cheese at Work Bar & Grill. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins/Texas BBQ Posse)

A philosophical question: Can a place that has more salads on its menu than smoked meats be called a barbecue joint?

After sampling the brisket, pulled pork and chicken at Work Bar and Grill in Deep Ellum, the Posse answers "Yes."

We also are better able to answer a couple of other pressing Dallas barbecue questions.

Where's a good place to have a sit-down barbecue dinner with drinks?

Lockhart Smokehouse used to be our only recommendation. Now, we can add Work. Both have great bars.

And, if the lunch line at Pecan Lodge is way too long, where's a good nearby alternative?

Work is only a few blocks away.

Yes, we're all riding the wave of this Texas barbecue phenomenon

Lockhart Smokehouse pitmaster Will Fleischman. (Photo ©Daniel Goncalves/Fotobia.com)

A while back, after the lunch rush and long before dinner, I was sipping a beer and talking to Will Fleischman, the pitmaster-philosopher at Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas.

Is the Texas barbecue bubble going to burst? I asked. Will the culinary accolades from around the country and the long lines of customers here eventually go away?

Fleischman acknowledged that the frenzy for Texas barbecue might someday cool. But, he said, he was going to ride the wave of popularity as far as it goes. He had been employed at Lockhart since it opened in 2011. From his point of view, he said, he hadn't worked a day the whole time. It was fun.

There's no argument that Texas barbecue is hot. We have VIP tastings, $150-a-head custom bus tours of top Texas joints, and long lines of regular barbecue lovers happily queuing up for hours just to get served.

I know all that. You could argue that the Posse is just a byproduct of the Texas barbecue resurgence.

But the true extent of this phenomenon didn't become entirely clear to me until this past week.

Lockhart Smokehouse renews our faith in DFWs Top 7 Tour

Assistant pitmaster Damien Avila takes lunch orders at Lockhart Smokehouse (Photo©Daniel Goncalves/Fotobia.com)

After Tuesday's debacle in Garland we set our sights on Lockhart Smokehouse for lunch Wednesday and we're proud to say the meat did not disappoint (save for one spare rib that was a bit tough).

The Posse rolled into Oak Cliff on the third of seven stops on our weeklong tour of Texas Monthly's 7 DFW joints that made the 2013 Top 50 list.

Posse visits Texas Monthly's "DFW 7" top BBQ joints this week

After Texas Monthly announced their Top 50 BBQ list in mid-May, we thought one of the biggest surprises was the inclusion of seven DFW-area barbecue restaurants on the list.

The last Texas Monthly list in 2008 had three places in DFW: Baker's Ribs in Dallas, Cousin's Barbecue in Ft. Worth and Big Daddy's Roadhouse BBQ in Lavon. Cousin's is the only holdover on the new list.

As a group, we have been numerous times to Pecan Lodge, Lockhart Smokehouse, Longoria's BBQ and Meshack's Bar-B-Que Shack. However, we've never visited Bartley's BBQ, Cousin's Barbecue or Hutchins BBQ on a BBQ tour.

Thus planning for a tour of the newly-named "DFW 7" was set in motion.

It's not just Austin, something big is happening in Dallas BBQ, too

These five joints are leading a BBQ renaissance in the Dallas area. (Photos ©Chris Wilkins and Jim Rossman)

Reader interaction is terrific. On our story in The Dallas Morning News about Austin's barbecue renaissance, one online reader -- going by the moniker "J" -- wrote:

"Too bad the BBQ scene in DFW stinks."

I responded to "J" that the sentiment is wrong. There's a barbecue renaissance in Dallas, too.

From the Posse's extensive touring, we put Pecan Lodge at the Farmers Market among the top two or three joints in the state. If Texas Monthly's new rankings (the June issue) don't agree, we'll call them out again.

Also, we think Lockhart Smokehouse in the Bishops Arts District and Meshacks's in Garland are easily among the Top 50.

More evidence of the Texas BBQ hipster pitmaster, and this one's smoking turkey

Lockhart Smokehouse pitmaster Will Fleischman. (Photo ©Chris WIlkins/Texas BBQ Posse) 

While we were at Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas the other day, pitmaster Will Fleischman stopped by our table to explain his recent experiments cooking turkey breast. He didn't have high hopes, he admitted, but the final product turned out well and will soon be added to the regular menu.

We tried some and it was excellent.

As Fleischman talked, it occurred to us that here was another example of the phenomenon we wrote about recently, the young hipster pitmaster who is changing Texas barbecue.

Last year Fleischman was named one of the 10 best pitmasters in the south by Southern Living magazine. Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin was the only other Texan on the list.

Of course, this week in Dallas, we'll get the debut of the anti-hipster pitmaster when Jack Perkins is scheduled to open his Slow Bone joint at Sylvan and Irving Boulevard.

We can't wait.

Lockhart Smokehouse owner wants to add another pit to keep up with demand at his Oak Cliff joint

Our Shiner Platter lunch at Lockhart Smokehouse. Yes, it was a good as it looks. (Photo ©Chris Wilkins)

During an anything-but-light lunch Thursday at Lockhart Smokehouse in Dallas, owner Jeff Bergus said business has been so strong -- up more than 25 percent this year -- that he's thinking of adding a second pit to the big Bewley that the joint has used since opening in early 2011.

Where would it go?

Bergus said he wasn't sure, but pointed out that there is a small, vacant storefront adjacent to the back of his place, which would be one possibility.

Lockhart is now cooking two tons of meat a week, he said, and sometimes selling out.